Skylark

Sustainable Agriculture on a Dutch

Farm

Twitter: @veldleeuwerik

@jrdejongodoorn

Jan Reinier de JongArable farm in Odoorn

� 100+ hectare

� Seed potatoes

� Starch potatoes

� Barley

� Sugerbeets

� Solar

History

� 1920

� Mixed farm

� Crop farm

� Take over 2006

� 5th Generation....

• Participation Skylark

– Participation from in 2010

– From 2000 participant in several projects about innovation, soil and

environment

– Motivation: Sustainable farming is important for our future.

Participation in Skylark enables me to shape sustainability at my farm

in my own way together with colleagues

Sustainable Agriculture

A Wonderfull Challenge

Cooperation between farmers, buyers and

processors.

Sustainability is about making connections

Producer, consumer and society

Skylark Foundation

Initiative Heineken International - 2002

• Ten farmers

– Development of a Bottum Up approach

– Learning from each other about sustainability, not checking off requests of standards

– Hiring of academic expertise

– Friends in rotation

• Heineken Barley

• Suiker Unie Beet

• Unilever Carrots

• McCain Potatoes

• Van Liere Onions

Our objectives

• Promoting the sustainable production of agricultural products.

• Facilitate the establishment of sustainable supply chains.

• Restoring the social context between producer and consumer.

Our mission:

• The Skylark system to be THE system for sustainable

agriculture in the Netherlands.

Flevoland Flevoland Nederland

2003- 2005 2006 - 2010 2011 - 2014

Project Veldleeuwerik Stichting Veldleeuwerik

development application upscaling

Ten

Farmers

Fifty

farmers

Over 400

Farmers

Some examples

Facilitate the establishment of sustainable

supply chains. Collaboration: Primary sector, processors and retail

Farmers have key role

Continuous improvement on farm level

Involves whole crop rotation

� Ten indicators for improvement

� Sustainability plan

� Region groupes

Industry supports

Transparency in the supply chains

Same approach for all crops

[ Friends in Rotation ]

� Instruments and tools for farmers

� Consultants sustainable arable

farming

� Experts and workshops

Skylark method: Key elements

Skylark

method:

An individual grower with an own sustainability plan.

Created with the help of a sustainability consultant.

Regional group with 10 to 12 growers under supervision

of an academic expert. Every grower has his/her own

sustainability plan.

RC

Consul

tant

Grower

with SP

Vision

Plan

Action

Effect

The regiongroup

� Meets 8 times a year

• Fixed day

� The farmer discusses his sustainability plan with the group

• Sharing knowledge and experiences

� Exploring new knowledge (demand driven by the group)

• Skylark partners contribute their knowledge

� Process management by region coordinator

• Being open, honoust and critical to each other

More than 1000 actions every yearIndicators No of actions For instance

Soil fertility 400Crop rotation widen to 1 in 6 years potatoes with more onions

Apply solid manure

Soil loss 17No tillage

Applying pulp for mulching

Product value 196Partnership with dairy farmer

Growing new crops

Nutrients 177Supply phosphate into the row

Sowing green manure

Crop protection 172GPS based techniques

Phytobac

Water 66Collect rainwater for spraying chemicals

Between drainage

Energy 142Installation of solar panels

Energy registration in warehouse

Biodiversity 51Gaining knowledge about plant protection effect on soillife

Natural field margins

Human capital 52Partnership with potential successor

Training permanent workers

Local economy 14Expand home sales

Receiving students at the farm

INDICATOR --> ACTION 1

� Compost

� Tillage

� Solar panels

� Battery

INDICATOR --> ACTION 2

� GPS

� Optrx - sensor

INDICATOR --> ACTION 3

Together towards a sustainable healthy future

Thanks for your attention

Shared knowledge leads to shared inspiration

sustainable business